Word

Saw this comment on another blog:

Sometimes when I'm sitting at my computer, all 'Dear Google, how do I get wax out of a table cloth?' (warm iron and paper towel) or 'Dear Google, who was it that said 'The road to hell is paved with adverbs' (Stephen King), I wonder how they did it, so long ago, when all the knowledge in the world was stored up in books and in people's heads. Maybe they did a lot more calling their moms, or talking to Old Man Perkins down on Amblewood.

...actually, it was in response to a very funny story: The Internet is Magic on Ultratart, one of my favorite blogs.

Seriously, how did people do things back in the day? Reference books? Literal carbon copies of letters and memos? It blows my mind. We're so much more efficient nowadays--so I don't understand why no one seems to be working towards a standard 3-day weekend. Surely technology has earned us an extra 8 hrs off per week, eh? Who's with me?

Good Stuff

Poker comics, what more could you want from life? http://plusev.net/

I like this one in particular:

Cigarettes & Coffee

OK, no cigarettes. But coffee, yes. I am a big fan of good coffee. At work, the brand we usually order is called Stewart's Coffee, and I actually think it's really good. Add 3/4ths of a French Vanilla Coffeemate creamer, stir, and I am a happy, productive worker. At least for a little while.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of the people in my office don't like the Stewart's Coffee very much. They have very bad taste (and obviously defective taste buds!), as they keep bringing in packages of Dunkin' Donuts coffee and making them instead. I know Dunkin' Donuts is like known for its coffee and has a big following of people who proclaim it as their coffee of choice. I am here to tell you that those people are all completely and utterly ridiculous. Dunkin' Donuts has some of the worst coffee I have ever tasted. It is so nasty; the taste is just so, so...well, I don't know what it is. It's bad. Overly acidic would be my best guess. And the aftertaste, ugh. All of these people who preferentially drink it are off their rockers. I wonder what in the world is wrong with them. They are probably the same people who think candied cranberries are a good food. Yuck.

So, anyway, now that I have that off my chest, a little update on life. Poker went pretty well in March; I didn't get to play a ton, but I always 12-tabled when I did play, so I got in a decent number of hands overall. Ended up even surprising myself by having the guts to play about 100 hands of NL2K 6-max because I got the "God seat" (i.e. the seat to the immediate left) on a huge fish. It was pretty nerve-wracking, and the regulars ran me over completely, but luckily I was able to isolate the fish a few times and take a good chunk of his stack. It was a good experience overall, I think, but I definitely don't consider myself an NL2K caliber player by any means and don't plan on making a habit out of playing in games that high. Maybe some day. Maybe.

Work has been pretty "ugh" lately. My boss/immediate superior is in poor health, has been in and out of the hospital for the past 3 weeks, and is basically going to have to take a leave of absence from work. So, I know I've complained in the past about "doing the work of two people" in my office, but actually, literally having to do the job of two people is fucking hard. Especially when it's your supervisor's job. I'm well on my way to a serious case of burn out. And, of course, poker is there in the background, always, teasing me with its easy money and promises of mornings of sleeping in and no alarm clocks. It is tempting, no doubt. I try not to think about it--especially in the morning.

What is the World Coming To?

Here's something you don't see every day--an actually well-informed and intelligent article about poker from the mainstream media (ESPN, no less!). Embarrassing admission time: I have a yooge crush on Phil Galfond. Dude is a great poker player, a good writer, a very nice guy (from everything I've heard) and pretty cute. What more could you ask for in a guy?

In other news, work is kicking my ass and I am running extremely well at the poker. Matt went back to school yesterday and left me with his MacBook Air--not a bad deal! I'd forgotten the luxury of having a laptop that doesn't overheat and completely crash every time I try to open more than three programs on it simultaneously. (I love my laptop about as much as one can an inanimate object; it has served me very well these past four years, but it is clearly on its last legs.) The two-finger scrolling is a new thing for me and is sooo nice.

One of my favorite things about coming back to work after a long weekend is checking my email junk mail folder and seeing what spam has gotten through our filters. I don't get a ton of spam in general, but it's definitely more than my gmail account (where I hardly ever get any) and always highly entertaining to me. Some of my favorites from the past week (yes, I am actually lame enough that I leave my favorite ones in my junk mail folder rather than delete them, so that every time I go in there I can laugh at their titles all over again): "Leg game," "I was seduced.", and "Your new proportion will keep her satisfied." That last one contains the following text:

FPpk
Having survived the Nazis, the Hungarians did not want to trade

Just imagine that your love wand becomes extremely huge! It is attainable!
Before deciding on applying to surgery, try our preparation!

The Russians were moving westward. But would they break the NaziWhat one is left with is a man who, even as an adult, was convincedTwo: When taking risks, dont bet the ranch.He is a chemical engineer and works for Tungsram, the wellknownthe other boys. In fact, George learned how to box, how to defend him-own interest in the subject. Although the family spoke Hungarian,

I wonder if anyone has ever considered writing a book about all the different bizarro spam people come up with. I can't be the only one who gets a huge kick out of this stuff, can I?

Nothing Much

Not much going on here. Prepping for Match Week in the office. Matt is home for Spring Break, so haven't had time to play much poker. We watched the movie "The Assassination of Jesse James" last night, which I thought was excellent.